Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Resurrection Eggs and Toddler Extension Activities

True to my word, I have not been pushing Boogie to do any worksheets or activities lately. I have been planning an Easter sensory bin, and bought a few things, but, again, I am not obsessing or prioritizing it above the things that are more important.

I have been thinking a lot about how to make Easter special for Boogie this year, though, and have come across several different versions of DIY Resurrection Eggs that I love. Resurrection Eggs are a 12 day countdown to Easter, using symbols inside of plastic eggs to tell Jesus' story from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday. It is a beautiful, tangible idea, and we all know that our kids learn best when there is some hands on, sensory connection.

With that in mind, I took the Resurrection Eggs a step further, and also came up with an extension activity for Boogie to compliment the symbol in the egg each day. I also have been mulling around with short memory verses and songs that correlate but have not come up with 12 of each, so maybe I will figure that all out for next year. The verses that I did choose, I tried to keep short whenever possible. I want Boogie to be able to really listen and not be distracted or bored.

Without any more rambling, here is the Resurrection Egg set that I made my boys, and my ideas for activities for each day from today until Easter Sunday.

I already had everything on hand that I needed, so this only cost me the time I took deciding what verses I wanted to use.

In case you want to duplicate what I am doing with Boogie, I am going to explain what I did for each egg, and tell you the toddler extension activity I came up with. If you would like to use the same verses and translations, you can download the document I created here.

Egg 1

Item- Leaves (from a garland I had).

Verse- "So they took branches of
palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who
comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” (John 12:12-13)

Activity- Gather green blankets, pillowcases, towels, or scarves. Play parachute with them. Lay them on the floor and roll around on them. Sing songs while waving them around the room. This is great for gross motor fun and sensory fun if you have a bunch of different types of green linen. We are using fleece, satin, and towels.

Egg 2

Item- Small bottle of perfume

Verse- “For when she poured this
perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial.” (Matthew 26:12)

Activity- Spray perfume or body spray on a number of different index cards. Smell them with your child and talk about the different scents. Which ones he/she likes or doesn't like. If they smell like something familiar. You could also go to the mall if you are feeling brave (or visiting the Easter Bunny) and collect samples from the department stores. Another fun sensory idea.

Egg 3

Item- Cracker

Verse- As they were eating, Jesus
took some bread and blessed it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the
disciples, saying, “Take it, for this is my body.” (Mark 14:22)

Activity- Have fun eating as many different types of crackers as you have in the pantry! You could also have fun breaking them into small pieces first (with your hands or a hammer/mallet like they did at Taming the Goblin) and make a bowl full of crushed crackers.

Egg 4

Item- Small flowers

Verse- Then Jesus came with them
to a place called Gethsemane, and He told the
disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” (Matthew 26: 36)

Activity- I have a couple different ideas for this one. Either to go out and find a place to pick wildflowers (or probably weeds like dandelions) or what we will probably end up doing is playing with pretend flowers at home, possibly like these pipe cleaner flowers from Cachey Mama's Classroom. We can stick them in Styrofoam and have some fine motor practice.

Egg 5

Item- 3 dimes

Verse- Then when Judas, who had
betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse

and returned the
thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders (Matthew 27: 3)

Activity- Sort and wash coins. Boogie will LOVE this. He can get wet, we will probably color the water and add soap, and coins are fascinating to small children, probably because they don't get to play with them very often. This is fine motor practice, too.

Egg 6

Item- Gold pipe cleaner crown

Verse- So Pilate asked him, “Are
you the king of the Jews?” Jesus replied, “You have said it.” (Luke 23:3)

Activity- Make, decorate, and wear paper crowns. If I get to Burger King anytime soon, we might just turn theirs inside out instead of working from scratch. Boogie isn't big on art projects but I wanted to throw one in there. I think he will like wearing it. We won't do anything glue-y or goopy, I don't think, just crayons or markers, so he can put it on right away if he wants to.

Egg 7

Item- Nail (ideally you should have 3, but I am using 1and seeing how things go.)

Verse- “Then the soldiers nailed
him to the cross” (Mark 15:24)

Activity- Sort real nails by size and pound them in Styrofoam. We will obviously do this very well supervised and only when Bam Bam is sleeping.

Activity- We are going to roll the dice, count the dots, and then put that number of clothes ON. I will have an assortment but probably mostly socks, mittens, and hats because Boogie can do those mostly by himself. I think he will find it really funny. And it is great practice in both counting and getting dressed/undressed.

Egg 9

Item- Sponge soaked in vinegar

Verse- Jesus knew
that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, “I am
thirsty.” A jar of sour wine was sitting there, so they soaked a sponge in it,
put it on a hyssop branch, and held it up to his lips. When Jesus had tasted
it, he said, “It is finished!” Then he bowed his head and released his spirit.
(John 19:28-30)

Activity- Water play with sponges. We will probably color it, add soap, and maybe add some kind of scent.

Egg 10

Item- Gauze

Verse- Following
Jewish burial custom, they wrapped Jesus’ body with the spices in long sheets
of linen cloth. (John 19:40)

Activity- We are going to do a mummy wrap with toilet paper. I used to love this! The most fun is busting out and throwing toilet paper all over the room :)

Egg 11

Item- Rock

Verse-[Joseph]
laid [Jesus’ body] in a tomb that had been carved out of the rock. Then he
rolled a stone in front of the entrance. (Mark 15:46)

Great ideas, Sierra! I loved Resurrection eggs already, and you made them even better with your extensions! I featured your post at the Living Montessori Now Facebook page and pinned it to my Lent Pinterest board at http://pinterest.com/debchitwood/lent/

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Welcome!

My name is Sierra and I am blessed :) I have been married to my husband for 7 years and cannot imagine a better husband and father. We currently have 3 beautiful boys and look forward to expanding our family when the timing is right. We have started preschool with our oldest this fall, teaching him about letters, numbers, and, most importantly of all, about God. We have been doing "tot school" with our middle son, encouraging him to explore learn along with his brother. We are trying to teach the baby how to sleep through the night consistently :) Thanks for stopping by to join us on our homeschooling journey!

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